LONDON — Josephine McMillen emerged from a courtroom here Wednesday, the final day of an appeals hearing for her daughter's convicted killer, and struggled to convey her emotions.

"I'm not feeling much of anything right now,'' McMillen, who lives in Connecticut, said as she pulled on a full-length, pea-green wool coat to brave the London chill. "I'm just letting everything settle in.''

McMillen is in her 70s and has trouble hearing, but says she realizes that some of the questions raised by members Judicial Committee of the Privy Council—the final court of appeal for cases from British-controlled territories—indicate they could decide to throw out a jury's May 2001 murder conviction against William Labrador. The five-member panel could also determine that he could never get a fair trial in the British Virgin Islands and set him free.

Labrador remains imprisoned on Tortola, an island east of Puerto Rico where 34-year-old Lois Livingston McMillen was attacked and drowned on Jan. 15, 2000. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in May, 2001 and lost an appeal in a regional court. His last hope is the five-judge panel who sit in a building next door to the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing St.

William Labrador was convicted of murder in May, 2001

The hearing began Monday, with a presentation by Labrador's lawyer and continued Tuesday with a lawyer representing the prosecution defending its handling of the case. Wednesday's hearing was more of the same, with each side reiterating some of its main points.

The only evidence against Labrador, a 39-year-old resident of Long Island and New York City, is the testimony of former cellmate, Jeffrey Plante, who told jurors that Labrador confessed to drowning the victim during an argument over money.

Senior Crown Counsel Terrence Williams, the prosecutor on the case, noted that a lower appeals court ruled that the trial judge was correct in directing jurors to Plante's testimony that Labrador confessed to drowning McMillen. At the time of the alleged confession, the pathologist had not concluded that McMillen drowned, Williams noted, suggesting that Plante could have only gotten that fact from McMillen's killer.

The defense, however, cited the claim as just one of many ways Williams put a spin on the truth during the trial, at the appeals court and before Judicial Committee. The defense presented local newspaper articles published within days of the killing, and months before the alleged confession, which reported that authorities announced the death was "consistent with drowning.'"

James Dingemans argued this week for the prosecution that because Plante's history was dealt with in great detail, the trial judge did not commit reversible evidence by failing to use a phrase like "use caution'" when instructing jurors about Plante's testimony. Asked by a judge Wednesday how the committee should proceed if Dingemans' argument was not accepted, Dingemans tried to reargue his points.

"Assume you are wrong," the judge, Lord Hutton, interjected.

"If I'm wrong, it would be my submission that there was no miscarriage of justice," Dingemans said.

Such exchanges gave members of Labrador's family hope that he might one day soon leave an island where he began what was supposed to be a week-long vacation more than three years ago.

"This has been an incredible experience to finally see justice,'' Labrador's mother, Barbara Labrador of Southampton, N.Y., said when the hearing concluded. "A lot of the truth that did not come out at the trial came out in this appeal. I feel very hopeful that this has been appreciated by the Privy Council.''

Prosecutors said they will not comment until a decision is announced. Besides Labrador's appeal, the panel must also rule on whether his friend Alexander Benedetto, 37, of New York, must stand trial again for McMillen's murder.

The trial judge discharged Benedetto mid-trial after concluding that Plante's testimony about statement's attributed to Benedetto could not sustain a lawful conviction. Although prosecutors in the U.S. and Great Britain do not have such a right, prosecutors on Tortola appealed the directed verdict of acquittal and the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal ordered the murder charge reinstated.

Pressed by the Privy Council judges, Dingemans said that if Benedetto is retried for murder, it will be on the strength of Plante's testimony that Benedetto told Labrador words to the effect of "you are more guilty than I am." The defense claims that the statement is ambiguous, at best, and is not nearly enough for a jury to conclude that Benedetto played any role in the killing.

Typically in major cases, the committee takes six weeks or more to issue an opinion and forward a letter to the Queen and the regional appeals court.